


Duty of Care

by Leonawriter



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Family Dynamics, Friendship, Gen, Missing Scene, Nobodies (Kingdom Hearts) - Freeform, Post-Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep, Promises
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-19 17:58:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15515400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonawriter/pseuds/Leonawriter
Summary: Lexaeus cannot feel concern, but he does remember being able to when Zexion clearly needs someone to be a listening ear.





	Duty of Care

It isn't too long after the incident - he is still becoming used to the name 'Lexaeus' and its harsher bite compared to 'Aeleus', but that is something that all of them are adjusting to, in their own ways - when he finds the young boy sat in an out of the way spot.

He cannot feel true concern anymore, as the emotion, along with worry, sadness... everything, is gone.

He remembers, however, and goes to sit next to him.

Zexion's eyes don't move from the floor for several minutes. Without a heart, Lexaeus knows that he potentially  _should_ feel impatient for some sort of response at some point, but since he feels nothing, he takes advantage of the lack and... waits.

"...Ev-  _Vexen_ keeps ordering me out of the labs," the boy said eventually, head moving slightly to indicate he was looking in his direction. "He says he can't work with me there now."

Memory wasn't required for him to know how close the two had been before all of... this. That Even had more or less adopted Ienzo when Ansem hadn't always had time for the child was mere fact. The scientist had continued to look after the boy even up to the final moment, when they had lost their hearts, from what he had heard.

So to hear this, was at the same time surprising, and...

Unsettling.

Yet it also made sense, from a certain angle.

"You know what it is that makes us different from the other Nobodies that you have seen?"

It could have been a statement, but he wanted to know that Zexion understood.

"We remember what it was like to feel," the boy said, gaze squarely on the floor in front of him again.

Lexaeus nodded.

"Even treasured you more than any of his experiments. If he had not, he would not have done so many things for you." Such as allowing things to go on that Xehanort had requested, which he had refused many times before, yet from Ienzo - it had only taken some deliberation and the scientist had caved. Perhaps in retrospect that had been Even's greatest flaw. "Vexen may not have Even's heart, but he  _remembers."_ He took a moment, considering his words. "Vexen knows that as Even he would feel certain things. Just because he cannot, does not mean that he will not act on what he thinks he should be feeling."

"What's that, then?"

Zexion was scowling up at him, the child clearly running off of still-fresh memories of frustration and want to be a part of things. Lexaeus put a hand on his shoulder. Perhaps neither of them could feel it as comfort, but perhaps it would do something regardless.

"As your guardian, he had a duty of care for you. To ensure that you were not endangered by any of the things that he involved you in. Even as Vexen, he likely feels that he has failed that, given your presence here now."

"A... duty of care," Zexion says after a while. Tasting the words. "That's..."

"A duty of care does not have to be an emotion," he said firmly. "It simply is. Such as how a promise simply requires one to uphold to what they have said that they will, or will not, do. Do you understand?"

The boy's eyes drifted back down, but his face was no longer wearing the scowl from before, and he seemed lost in thought.

"I see. I think so, at least."

Lexaeus rose, and inclined his head.

"I will have words with Vexen, but in the meantime I promise you," he said solemnly, "that we will find a way to regain our hearts. Perhaps then we will all understand one another again, the way we used to."

A promise, after all, had nothing to do with emotion, and Vexen hadn't been the only one with a duty of care.


End file.
